One in every seven people in the country is unemployed

ECONOMY SERVICE

The shrinking country's economy has caused unemployment figures to "spike". According to May calculations, one in every seven people in the country is unemployed.

The Turkish Statistical Institute ( TurkStat ) announced unemployment data for May. Narrowly defined official unemployment by TurkStat fell to 8.4 percent this month. Broadly defined unemployment, which refers to the truly unemployed, was 31 percent, the second highest level in the last 11.5 years.

According to the calculations made by DİSK Research Center (DİSK-AR) using TÜİK data, the number of real unemployed people in May was 12 million 606 thousand people. Broadly defined unemployment continued to be higher than even the pandemic this month.

The broadly defined unemployment rate, which was 25.4 percent in the same month last year, increased by 5.6 points in the last year. An additional 2.5 million people were added to the number of unemployed in the last year. In May 2024, this number was calculated as 10.1 million.

The gender gap in unemployment continued to widen. Narrowly defined male unemployment was 6.5 percent this month, while it was estimated at 11.9 percent for women. Broadly defined unemployment was 25 percent for men and 40.8 percent for women. The difference between real male and female unemployment was 15.8 points.

WORKERS AGAINST 'FLEXIBLE WORKING'

In the "Year of the Family", which the AKP government uses as a reactionary project, a new form of exploitation targeting women, " flexible working ", was not wanted in May either. The number of people underemployed due to time, that is, those who do not work full-time but want to work full-time, increased from 3 million 236 thousand to 4 million 375 thousand in one year, an increase of 1 million 139 thousand people. 4.4 million people wanted full-time jobs instead of part-time jobs.

The number of people who have lost hope in looking for a job has also increased. The number of potential labor force, which includes the hopelessly unemployed, those who are not looking for a job but are ready to work, and those who are looking for a job but cannot start working immediately, has increased by 1 million 391 thousand people in the last year, from 3 million 869 thousand to 5 million 260 thousand. The report stated, "Almost 5.3 million people in Türkiye cannot find a job despite wanting to work. As can be seen, all types of unemployment, except narrowly defined unemployment, are on the rise."

The unemployed could not benefit from the Unemployment Fund this month either. Only 15 out of every 100 people officially counted as unemployed by TÜİK were able to receive the allowance. The Fund, which has been criticized for its harsh conditions for benefiting, is not benefiting 85 percent of the officially unemployed according to DİSK-AR's calculations. While TÜİK announced the total narrowly defined number of unemployed as 2 million 972 thousand people this month, according to İŞKUR's data, the number of people who were able to receive unemployment allowance this month remained at 457 thousand 244.